Most conventional vehicles, such as cars, may be modified to include a liquid crystal display (LCD) screen or video monitor. Such display screens are generally located at the rear side of the headrest of the vehicle's seats and are generally used for entertainment purposes. Other vehicles, such as sport utility vehicles (SUV), trucks, and vans may also utilize a display screen, such as an overhead LCD screen attached to the roof of the vehicle, which is generally a retractable, flip-down monitor.
Many conventional vehicle LCD screens and video monitors, however, are either pre- and permanently-installed into the headrest of the car seat or are permanently attached to the roof of a vehicle, as an overhead monitor. These LCD screens generally lack many of the functionalities of LCD screens not installed into a vehicle. Specifically, these LCD screens, for example, may only display certain multimedia materials, such as movies retrieved from a predetermined multimedia player (e.g., built-in DVD player, portable DVD player). Thus, aside from playing movies from a single media source, most conventional LCD screens installed into vehicles lack many functions, such as wirelessly accessing the internet or connecting to a mobile computer or mobile phone.
Additionally, another disadvantage of existing in-vehicle LCD screens is that most LCD screens are inadequate to accommodate current entertainment or multimedia needs and/or abilities. In particular, most people generally have at least one portable communication or external electronic device, such as a cellular phone, smartphone, and/or laptop computer. When a person is sitting in a vehicle as a passenger, the existing LCD display simply cannot suit his or her needs and does not interact with the passenger's mobile devices. That passenger, for example, may want to utilize the in-vehicle LCD display to perform more tasks than just simply watching movies, such as playing music, browsing the Internet, or playing games.
Furthermore, users of the LCD screens may also want to utilize the screens to display the user's activity on his or her personal electronic communication device. For example, when a passenger wants to share a particular photo stored in his or her laptop computer or phone with other passengers, he or she may want to link the device with the in-vehicle LCD screen(s) so that every passenger sitting in the car can observe the photo simply by looking at the LCD screens positioned in front of them. Conventional in-vehicle LCD screens do not perform such a function.
Therefore, what is needed is an in-vehicle display for audio-video distribution, which resolves limitations in the prior art, including the foregoing deficiencies. The new in-vehicle display may comprise a vehicle monitor or display that connects with an independent computing device physically or wirelessly. Additionally, the in-vehicle display may show the activities performed by the user on the external electronic device, including displaying the desktop of the device.